Stop Addictions Naturally: Meditative Breathing Methods

This challenge "how to stop an addiction"
has many sides since one's success depends on the following factors:
- presence of the past psychological or emotional trauma(s) that can be found in
over 90% of people
- support from the community of people with the same goal (to overcome
addiction)
- support from family, relatives or people living in the same household
- current employment and/or hobbies
- the physical state of the brain, especially its oxygen and CO2 levels that can
either favor or prevent expression of addictive thoughts and behaviors.

It is impossible to predict the importance and contribution of each of
these factors on final outcomes. Many people may suggest that an emotional
state, will-power and attitude of the person are also important. There are
also some other influential parameters. In this article, we are going to
focus on one's ability to get as much as possible from each of the 5
above-mentioned factors.

1. There are many methods and techniques that deal with emotional traumas. In
my view, the most powerful fast method, among methods with 101 practitioner work,
is the New Decision Therapy that is based on
forgiveness and uses clearing three layers of denial to ensure success.
For more info about this therapy and how emotional traumas change our breathing
patterns, see this page: Emotional trauma.

2. For support from the community, a person needs to find out if there are
specific groups or counselors who work with the same or similar addictions and
join or consult them.

3. Support from family, relatives or people living in the same household
is often difficult to control, but remaining in the environment that causes
too much stress or promotes addictive behavior may not be a smart step.

4. Getting an interesting job and hobbies will surely provide a person
with better substitutes for his or her addictive habits.

5. Finally, the last factor will be analyzed in more detail below since
this factor relates to stress and anxiety. It also
explains an explosion of addictive behaviors that took
place some decades ago. An addiction to numerous substances
and abnormal behaviors is nearly always
based, on a physiological level, on a low body and brain
oxygenation. The appearance of numerous addictions during the
previous century has roots in increased
breathing rates of ordinary people.

Why and how can ineffective breathing patterns and low brain oxygen levels
cause the desire for and possible addiction to sugar, caffeine, alcohol,
cigarette smoking, and other stimulants or depressants (including chemical substances and
drugs)?

What are the contributions of mouth breathing, chest breathing, and
breathing too much air?

Mouth breathing reduces brain and body-oxygen levels due
to arterial hypocapnia (low CO2 in the arterial blood) and
reduced absorption of nasal nitric oxide.
Chest breathing leads to an ineffective gas exchange in
the alveoli of the lungs and reduced blood
oxygenation (hypoxemia). Over-breathing causes arterial hypocapnia, which
constricts arteries and arterioles reducing blood and O2 delivery to the brain
and all other vital organs. All these effects and how to
stop these habits are considered in detail on separate web pages.

How to stop addictions and their vicious circles

Possible symptoms of low body O2 include, but are
not limited to chronic fatigue, confused thinking, and
depression. Potential addictive substances can often be
respiratory depressants, like codeine, morphine, and
high doses of alcohol. Therefore, they reduce or slow down breathing and
cause a temporary boost in brain and body oxygenation. On the other hand, some addictive
substances can be stimulants which increase metabolic rates, as in the case of
caffeine, low doses of alcohol, or cigarettes. Then these substances provide a transitory
feeling of energy, improved concentration, and fitness.

The significant problems with these addictive substances are related to their
withdrawal symptoms and toxicity that produce stress on the organs of
elimination and increase ventilation. Therefore, due to the
toxicity of the addictive substance, addicts suffer from increased hyperventilation and
deterioration in one's physical and mental condition. Increased breathing
later requires elevanted doses of the addictive substance.
This forms the vicious circle of addiction. As a result, body O2 content gets
below 20 seconds, and later even under 10 seconds. You can learn how to stop an addiction
naturally from clinical experience of more than 160 Soviet and Russian doctors.

You
can stop an addiction,
if you start to slow down your breathing towards the medical norm, while
practicing any breathing exercises that increase brain and body oxygenation.
However, the best results are achieved with those breathing techniques
that employ meditation methods. These methods teach the person to recognize
own abnormal or negative thinking patterns.

There are also numerous lifestyle changes that assist you in increasing body O2 and
help to eliminate addictions. For example, if you avoid supine sleep (that
is the worst sleep positions according to over 20 clinical studies), you
immediately increase body O2 content in the morning. Any physical exercise with
nasal breathing (in and out) is another good treatment option
to get rid of addictions.

Based on observations of thousands of patients by Soviet and Russian doctors,
as well as the experience of my students, here are the relationships between
morning body-oxygen levels, addictions, and other crucial lifestyle factors: